Trio of historic Napiers leads the way for London-Brighton

Though the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is not a race, this year’s running on November 3 shone a spotlight on three Napier race cars that were pioneers in Britain’s involvement in international motorsports. All three were connected with the Gordon Bennett Cup races of 1903-1905, and their tale explains how British Racing Green came to be.

Gordon Bennett Jr., the proprietor of the New York Herald newspaper, had established the race in 1900, intending to encourage competition among automobile-producing nations. Each country was allowed up to three entries in the race. For the 1903 running, the Gordon Bennett Cup race was held in conjunction with the Paris-Vienna race, over the 565 kilometers between Paris and Innsbruck. Just four of the Paris-Vienna racers were also entered in the Cup, and of those, one made it to the finish line: a 6.5-liter Napier driven by automotive pioneer Selwyn (S.F.) Edge.

Victory brought with it the right to host the next year’s race, but there was a snag: Britain did not allow racing on its roads. To the rescue came John Scott Montague, a member of Parliament who also happened to be a motoring enthusiast. Montague offered a law that would allow the speed limit in Ireland to be suspended on the date of the race. For the officials of the involved county councils, participation meant that any road improvements needed would be done at no cost to the counties. That did the trick. Several counties competed for the honor, and Kildare was chosen.

Organizers assigned a different color to each nation’s cars so that the spectators could easily identify them. To acknowledge the race’s hosts, the three Napiers that constituted the 1904 U.K. team were painted “shamrock green”; that gesture is generally acknowledged as the origin of British Racing Green. Alas, the color didn’t bring the team any luck: Two 7.7-liter cars crashed, and Edge, aboard a 13.7-liter monster, was disqualified after the finish. Camille “The Red Devil” Jenatzy won aboard a white Mercedes.

Eleven cars vied for the right to represent Britain in the 2004 race: Five Napiers, three Wolseleys and three U.K.-built Darracqs. One Napier and two Wolseleys made the team, but did not do well; Edge’s Napier suffered a seized engine, and did not finish.

The trio of Napiers that led the field of 385 cars taking part in the 117th running of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run included the 1902 winner, now owned by Argentinian collector Daniel Sielecki; a 7.7-liter car that crashed and overturned in the race, now owned by Britain’s National Motor Museum in Beaulieu; and an 11.1-liter car that crashed during the qualifying trials of 1904, now owned by the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands.

“Napier’s competition cars from this period are among the most significant cars in the history of British motor sport. They were not only the first to wear British Racing Green, but also the first cars built in this country to win major races overseas, thus paving the way for today’s U.K.-based world championship-winning F1 teams such as McLaren and Red Bull,” said Ben Cussons, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club Motoring Committee. “To have three of these incredible machines on this year’s Veteran Car Run was very, very special.”

The London to Brighton Run is held every year to commemorate the Emancipation Run of November 1896, which celebrated the end of Britain’s notorious red-flag laws and walking-pace speed limits. It’s open to all automobiles built before 1905. In addition to the Napiers, notable entries this year included a 1901 Waverley, a U.S. electric car, driven by Michael Ward, managing director of Harrods (shown above), and a recently restored 1903 Darracq driven by Mike Brewer and Edd China of the Discovery Channel show Wheeler Dealers, which was celebrating its 100th car milestone. Taking part in his 50th Veteran Car Run was Sir Ray Tindle, aboard his single-cylinder 1904 Speedwell Dogcart.

As we mentioned previously, this year’s run introduced an element of competition: a regularity test, in which contestants tried to maintain a precise average speed between two control points. Philip Oldman took the inaugural trophy aboard his 1902 Mors. The first car across the finish on Madeira Drive in Brighton was a 1902 Darracq (above), driven by Allan White. In all, 341 of the starters finished the run by the 4:30 p.m. deadline, cheered on by an estimated half-million onlookers.

Howard Arbituresays:

November 11, 2013 12:00 pm

Raymond Costasays:

November 11, 2013 10:41 pm

The Brighton Run is sort of like the talking horse. It’s not so much how fast the cars (if you can call them that) go, it’s the fact that after 110 years or more, they go at all! Let’s all hope they’re still going another hundred years on, even if we are not here to participate. Hip! Hip! Hooray!